Admissions Application

Admissions Application

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  Leveraging the Powerof Personalization for Higher-Education Recruitment Kim Poulston Business Development Specialist Research Data, Incorporated
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  Challenges of HigherEducation Recruitment Competition for best students is intense The internet has “leveled the playing field” among institutions – all schools have greater reach today Current economic conditions have narrowed the pool of potential students Difficulty of engaging prospects in a “personalized” manner “ Face-to-face” recruiting is expensive and time consuming Traditional mass marketing methods becoming less effective, provide little differentiation
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  Why Mass MarketingDoesn’t Work Anymore ROI for traditional direct mail is less favorable today Majority of today’s prospects are online; yet most online communications are impersonal, and conversations with prospects are one-way Institutions’ websites are the primary conduit of prospect research Differentiation is difficult – how do we make our direct marketing stand out? E-Mail is part of electronic clutter, and is easy to ignore and delete Difficult to engage both prospects and their parents using the same communication channel
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  Traditional Mass Marketingis Just a Numbers Game… PSAT Sophomores & Juniors + ACTPLAN + NRCCUA + CBSS ~88,000 prospects contacted 1 408 Enrollments from 88,000 prospects = < .5% success rate  12,283 2,507 2,030 1. Example from private regional university
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  What About SocialNetworking? Social networking is relatively new, and unproven Fickle nature of young people – i.e. the recent decline in popularity of MySpace vs. Facebook What will be the next Facebook or Twitter? Social networking tends to not engage parents Social networking effectiveness is difficult to measure and quantify Like other mass marketing channels, social networking tends to be impersonal Social Networking compliments other communication channels but doesn’t replace them
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  For-Profit University RecruitmentTrends For-profit higher education has grown explosively in the past ten years Nearly 10% of all college students are enrolled at “For-Profit Institutions” (“FPI’s”) 2 Mainstream acceptance of FPI’s has increased and continues to grow Many larger FPI’s are regionally accredited FPI’s tend to be entrepreneurial, forward-thinking FPI’s have leveraged the internet in nearly every facet of their business 2. Wall Street Journal, 2005
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  Walden University ExampleWalden University is a leading FPI, founded in 1971 Walden University is owned by Laureate Education, Inc. based in Baltimore, Maryland Walden was looking for an engagement channel that complimented their online model Their goal was to create a “personalized” marketing piece that communicates the benefits of a Walden University education Walden believed that a combination of online and print messaging yielded best results Personal information for the piece was captured via an online form on the Walden website
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  Walden University SolutionWorkflow Rule-based personalized printing process (XMPie) Step 1 Prospect visits Waldenu.edu Step 2 Personal and academic information is collected online Personalized booklets are stapled, trimmed, and mailed directly to Prospects Step 3 Step 4 Personalized booklets are printed on state-of-the-art digital press Step 5 Collected data is processed for personalized printing
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  Description of WaldenBooklet Front Cover Back Cover Booklet is 16 pages, self-cover, 11 x 8.5 landscape Booklet mails in a custom, full-window envelope Personalized copy and images throughout
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  Benefits of BookletSolution Delivers a personalized, high-impact, high-value communication to prospects and parents Differentiates your institution from the competition Prospects are pre-qualified; they are interested and engaged via website visit and request form Integrates the best of direct marketing and the web IT infrastructure for solution already in place; this application is up and running today! All we need is your data and content ideas; we do all the rest Print is still a highly relevant communication and recruitment channel
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  For More Information…For questions, or to schedule an appointment, please contact: Keith R. Bax Vice President Research Data, Inc. (804) 643-3468 x-227 [email_address]